COVID-19 Research: Reproducible Results Require Proper Pipetting

In this Rapidmicrobiology Podcast we tackle the so called reproducibility crisis in scientific research. Based on a popular Nature publication, we learned that 70% of scientists surveyed claimed they could not reproduce other published experiments. Why is this such a common problem?

One reason is that specialized laboratory techniques may not be described in sufficient detail for someone else to replicate the experiment. Pipetting, for example, is often overlooked as a routine laboratory practice. However, there are many small technical aspects to handling a pipette that can impact results. Even the type of pipette, mechanical vs. electronic, can make a difference.

We talked with Sandra Söderholm, an Application Scientist at Sartorius, and PhD scientist Jennifer Labisch working on lentiviral vector downstream processing about why pipetting technique matters. We also discussed the impact of pipetting in the context of COVID-19 research and assays with viral vectors, such as lentivirus infectious titer assay.

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